Sunday, August 21, 2016

When people don't get their way when they have a problem with government, they usually threaten to go to the media with it.
That is blackmail.
If there is nothing newsworthy going on in the area, the media might devote a few lines of copy devoted to human interest stories. The stories might be cutsie poo, and invite public comment.
Such is the tale of Janine Wagner, the feral cat lady from Irondequoit.
Ms. Wagner makes it her mission to come into the City of Rochester and set up shelters for feral cats on abandoned properties. She also feeds them.
Apparently there are no feral cats in her Town of Irondequoit that she could succor.
Her actions are illegal.
Ms. Wagner doesn't own the properties in the city where she set up her cat shelters and cat feeders. Nor did she get the permission of the property owners. That is trespassing and dumping; both are illegal.
The cat feeders also attracted vermin and wildlife: rats, skunks and raccoons. The cats have also chosen to move into the vacant houses to be near their food source, befouling the property with shit and piss. Our hot summer has magnified the problem of the stench. It's bad enough that some people live near abandoned and uncared for properties without that added problem.
Moreover, since the cats now depend on regular meals provided by Ms. Wagner, they don't need to chase away the rats and other wildlife. Most predators only kill when hungry and the feral cat lady's generosity has eliminated that.
Ms. Wagner and her supporters couldn't care less about the effect their generosity has had on the human neighbors of those properties. They are too busy patting each other on the back to care about humans.
It was those humans who got angry with Ms. Wagner and took their complaints to the county.
Unfortunately for Ms. Wagner, the City of Rochester was forced to remove those cat shelters on orders from the Monroe County Health Department.
That pissed off Ms. Wagner, who stated that she will continue to feed feral cats on those properties, where she has no legal right to be in the first place.
She also plans to replace the cat shelters on those properties, without anyone's permission, least of all the neighbors of those properties.
Her addlepated allies want the City of Rochester to compensate Ms. Wagner for the money she spent on those cat shelters, which had no business being on property she doesn't own.
That isn't going to happen.
But it made for interesting reading.
I wonder what the Town of Irondequoit would do if Ms. Wagner pulled her stunt there?
It's bad enough that some slumlords don't care about their properties and the negative effects they have on neighborhoods without Ms. Wagner's antics adding to it.